13 posts tagged “yankees”
Through the end of May, Jesse Litsch was 7-1 with 3.18 ERA. Now, after going 1-6 and 6.12 in June and July, the sophomore right-hander is on his way back to Syracuse for some seasoning. Don’t fret, though, Jays fans, he’ll be back in due time.
One thing that stands out about Litsch is he acts like he belongs in the big leagues. Unlike his replacement, David Purcey, Litsch has never looked nervous in his time in Toronto, as was especially evident in his memorable debut last June against Baltimore. In that game, Litsch allowed just four hits and a run while coming up one out short of a complete game.
He did, however, struggle at points last season, but bounced back, which makes it all the more possible to believe his latest rough stretch is just another hiccup on his road to becoming an established major league starter. In his fourth start of 2007, Litsch gave up five runs and failed to get out of the first inning against the Yankees, and was subsequently sent to the minors afterwards. He was recalled a month later, and responded with four quality starts in his first five outings. Then, after losing his first three starts of September, Litsch finished the season by allowing just three runs in his final three starts, two of which were against Boston and New York.
Purcey has struggled mightily in his two starts with the Jays this season, surrendering nine runs and 11 walks in just seven-and-a-third innings. Both, however, were spot starts, and the former first round draft pick’s confidence should benefit from having an established spot in the rotation, at least for the time being. He’s been great at Syracuse thus far, going 8-6 with a 2.69 ERA in 19 starts, and was a starting pitcher in last week’s International League All-Star Game.
I’m not sure this move is in any way a sign of whether or not the team thinks it has a shot at competing the rest of the season. At this point in time, it just looks as though Purcey has earned a chance to start regularly, and Litsch has shown he’s in need of some work on the farm. In the long run, both should benefit from the move.
Yikes -- lately I've been so engulfed in the Blue Jays' great battle to score runs that I've failed to notice what else is going on around baseball. I knew the Tigers had turned it around briefly after their 2-10 start, but noticed just now they've been swept by Kansas City for the second time this season and sit at 16-25, again losers of 10 of their last 12. Luckily for them, as is the case with the Jays thus far, nobody in the American League has really set themselves too far ahead of the pack. Though they're last in the Central, the Tigers are just six games back of first place Cleveland with 121 games to play. Time to count them out? Not by a long shot...
Once again, right after John Gibbons was written off as fired by just about anybody with a pen in arm's reach, the Jays have caught fire, winners of four in a row. The great Joe Inglett was the hero this afternoon, singling home the winning run in the top of the 11th in a 3-2 win over the Twins. Again, the Jays have crept to within a game of the hallowed .500 mark (21-22) and sit three-and-a-half games back from that team from Tampa Bay that refuses to lose. Should the Rays hold off the Yankees this evening (they're up 5-2 in the seventh), New York will drop into sole possession of last place in the East. How great does that sound?
(via Deadspin)
I hate to do this -- to put a damper on the best day of the baseball season -- but why do Major League Baseball's schedule makers insist on opening the season in cold weather cities? Didn't they learn their lesson with Cleveland's opening week last season? Well, forgive me for being bitter, because while much of the baseball world was enjoying Opening Day, I was at home watching re-runs of Jays Connected: The Season '08 while waiting for the inevitable announcement that today's Jays-Yankees opener was postponed. For the record, I was one of the unfortunate to travel all the way to Detroit for an opening week Jays-Tigers game last April, only for it to be postponed upon my arrival.
Nonetheless, baseball season will go on, as will my life...Game on!
Alright, so I grabbed that headline right off of ESPN.com. I thought it was clever, so I'll give credit where it's due.
Anyway, by now you're aware that Johan Santana is on his way out of Minnesota and not heading to the Red Sox, Yankees or Tigers, perhaps a sign that the baseball gods aren't necessarily out to get the rest of the American League. Instead, arguably the greatest pitcher on the planet is a New York Met. The Mets are reportedly sending prospects Carlos Gomez, Phil Humber, Kevin Mulvey and Deolis Guerra to Minnesota, and Santana is expected to sign a six-year, $150 million contract extension with New York.
Of the players heading to Minnesota, I've only heard of Gomez, and even he never stood out as a can't-miss prospect. Not sure what the Twins were thinking here -- the Yankees were reportedly dangling Phil Hughes and Melky Cabrera and the Red Sox had Jon Lester and Jacoby Ellsbury on the table -- but I'm not about to argue. Another star joining an American League East team not named the Blue Jays, Orioles or Devil Rays would've been enough to damper my excitement about this upcoming season, which is a mere two months away.
The Mets, in the meantime, have to be considered favourites in the National League in '08, even after last season's colossal collapse. In Santana, they get what they sorely lacked last season -- a proven ace (with apologies to John Maine and Oliver Perez, who should shore out a suddenly deep rotation). More than anything, though, I'm just relieved to see the guy out of the American League.
I remember how naive I was in December 2005 when Toronto acquired Troy Glaus for future All-Star Orlando Hudson. A legitimate power threat! Yeah, right. That was before I realized he struck out once every 1.3 at-bats and moved as though he was wearing bricks for shoes. Well, I got my wish last weekend when we dumped him on the Cardinals for Scott Rolen, a player I'm guessing Cardinals fans are as down on as I am on Glaus.
Overall, I still like the trade a lot. I realize Rolen is coming off a nightmarish season and I'm aware of his ongoing spat with Tony La Russa. Still, he's a defensive upgrade and should be a solid addition to the middle of the order. I'd grown so fed up with Glaus that you could plug just about anyone into the five hole and I wouldn't complain.
Having spent his entire career thus far in the National League, I'm not too familiar with Rolen. He was, however, a key pickup on my 1997 ESPN Fantasy Baseball championship team (A team I managed as a 13-year whiz-kid. This was a pre-Yahoo!, pre-head-to-head, rotisserie-style league) and for that I'm forever grateful.
Does this put Toronto in a class with the Yankees and Red Sox? Absolutely not. Nevertheless, we're just two-and-a-half months from Opening Day -- the only day of the season when all 30 teams are tied for first (A day that, as a Blue Jays fan, you learn to cherish).
So long, Roger Clemens. The big news in the world of sports today, of course, is the Mitchell Report. Clemens, Andy Pettitte, Miguel Tejada and Eric Gagne were among the 86 players linked to steroids in George Mitchell's 409-page report. According to Mitchell, all 30 teams are associated in one way or another.
The report claims Clemens first took steroids in 1998, his second of back-to-back Cy Young seasons in Toronto. Brian McNamee, a strength and conditioning coach with the Blue Jays at the time and later one of Clemens' trainers with the Yankees, allegedly injected steroids into Clemens' buttocks several times that year. There are reports of McNamee injecting Clemens until 2000, but no evidence since. 131 of Clemens' 354 career wins have come since 1998. Through his attorney, Clemens has denied Mitchell's claims.
A huge mess to say the least, but is anyone really surprised? It's been known for some time now that baseball is reeking of steroid use, and though Mitchell's report gives some background on where these drugs come from, it doesn't really tell us much that we didn't know. What does this mean for the future of the sport? Well, if the casual fan is going to shun baseball because of steroid use, they probably would've already. As for the players named, Commissioner Bud Selig has said each case will be handled separately.
The report includes some gems, from Clemens getting shot in the ass at SkyDome Hotel to the following masterpieces from the desk of Paul LoDuca:
The Jays got their long-awaited payback in the form of an 87 mile-per-hour Josh Towers fastball to Alex Rodriguez's calf last night. A-Rod whined, the benches cleared twice and Roger Clemens was ejected for retaliating with a fastball to Alex Rios' back a few innings later. In case you missed it, Rodriguez interfered with a pop-up on the infield when the Yankees were in Toronto in late May, yelling "Ha!" and causing a dumbfounded Howie Clark to assume he was being called off by a teammate.
Although it has been more than two months since the much-overhyped incident (it came in the ninth inning of a blowout), I enjoyed seeing the Jays get in a small kerfuffle, mostly for entertainment sake. Towers, the resident badass, had just given up a two-out RBI triple to Bobby Abreu and was likely responding out of frustration, and who better to take it out on than A-Rod? Just when it seemed order had been restored, Towers began jawing with Yankees' first base coach Tony Pena, causing the benches and bullpens to clear for the second time in a matter of minutes. Towers' confrontation with Pena also led to the best quote of the night. Afterwards, Towers said of Pena: "He's a quitter. He managed a team and quit in the middle of the season because he couldn't hack it and he's going to run his mouth to me?" Towers was referring to Pena resigning as manager of the Royals in 2005.
An entertaining night at Rogers Centre to say the least. However, I'm left wondering how the benches cleared and Kyle Farnsworth was able to escape without being punched in the face. Oh, by the way, the Yankees mauled the Jays 9-2.
This is some of the finest work ever captured on camera, and after watching it, I can rest assured that I wasn't the only one that spent a large chunk of my childhood mimicking batting stances in front of a mirror. The highlight: A-Rod swinging and looking back. Obviously recorded last season.
So that I don't sound like a complete homer, I'll also include Fitzy's Wicked Pissah Webcast from this past week, previewing the upcoming Red Sox season. If you're offended by bad language, stick to this.
